5 Essential Furniture Pieces & New Construction

Speaker 2: 00:03 welcome to RE/MAX real estate insights. We’ve got a great show for you tonight. We’re going to be talking about new construction. It’s exciting when you’re getting a brand new home that you’re picking everything from the floor to the ceiling, but there are some things that you should know to protect that investment. We’re going to be talking about some things you should look for, how you can do the punch list and other things to protect that asset, and then we’re going to be talking about the essential pieces of furniture that any home owner can buy to last for the long haul. You’ve just bought a new home. Sometimes you don’t want to spend a lot of money to furnish it, but these are the pieces that you can buy now in use for a lifetime. The guests joining usd are going to be Nathan Boji manager at RE/MAX Classic and Pam Bellante, the director of marketing for RE/MAX of southeastern Michigan. So stay tuned. We’ll be right back here on 760 WJR.

Speaker 2: 01:07 Welcome back to RE/MAX real estate insights. I’m your host, Jeanette Schneider. Have you recently bought a house that needs some furniture or perhaps you aren’t moving, but you just want to update your existing home decor regardless of the reason. If you are in the market for some furniture, you want to spend your money wisely and on pieces that you’re going to be happy with now and that you can use for many years to come, even if that’s in a different home. Well, we’ve identified five essential furniture pieces that you can use now and in the future to get your money’s worth. Joining me is Pam Bellante, marketing director for RE/MAX of Southeastern Michigan. To talk more about this. Welcome to the show. Pam. Yeah. Hi. Thank you for having me. My pleasure. So I guess let’s start with maybe those that are investing in furniture for a first home.

Speaker 2: 01:47 You know, it’s a home that they’re not planning to stay in forever. And for some of those I can say is, you know, it might almost seem like a waste to spend a lot of money in what’s probably my smallest of the homes I’m going to own. Or maybe some folks have upgraded their home. They’ve got a whole new dining room, a whole new living room. They’ve never had a furnished before, but just a little tight. So they’re just going to go by kind of on, on the cheap. Those are kind of some thought processes people can have, right? Yeah, absolutely. And you know, understandably so, I mean, especially like you’re saying, if it’s a, maybe it’s the first time home or not a forever home, you know, that certainly you can see how people would think that. Um, and you know, it might be a good idea, you know, you might be thinking it’s a good idea not to spend too much money on furniture if it’s just gonna be temporary, you know, every home or what have you.

Speaker 2: 02:28 But um, you don’t want to get caught up in having to buy a piece of furniture twice. Let’s just the other side of it, you know, you can, you’re saving money now, but you’re going to ultimately spend more by buying something more economical now in the replacing with something you really want. Yeah, that’s down the road. Absolutely. So it’s finding that sweet spot of trying to find the pieces that make sense to spend money on now that can really last you for years and years, maybe even decades. So the first of our pieces that we’re talking about, the first of the five is going to be what, what’s the very first. So the very first one is a dining room table. I’m just a simple elegant table, um, that you can use as a, you know, that will serve as a longterm investment is what you know, you want to look for.

Speaker 2: 03:10 Um, you know, if you want to, if you’re going to be upgrading in the future and your dining room table might not work in the new home, you know, maybe you’re gonna go to a larger size table. You can use that dining room table in a different room is a desk or something. So you know, it’s something that you can use long term and that’s what you want to keep, you know, keep in mind and you know, it doesn’t have to be our Nader fancy, just nice and sturdy. Right? So that’s lasted the test of time and can travel from home to home. Absolutely. And I think that’s where you’re saying mentioning sturdy is, you know, that’s where you want to pick things. The hardwoods such as Mahogany, the walnuts, the maple, the old, they’re all great options because they’re very, they will last a long time.

Speaker 2: 03:46 It’s more economical are going to be the composite woods to apply was they’re durable, you know, and they’re economical and they will last for a period of time but they’re not as strong as hard. What if you’re in it for the long haul, the hardwoods are the way to go. That would be the way to go and you know, but don’t discount glass, you know, glass tabletops are very versatile. They go well with many different decorum and you can always swap out the look by swapping out the chairs and kind of an easy upgrade on that thing. Right. Last point on tables is you want to think about shape round actually works well in most rooms and that may not be the size that comes to mind, but they work well in square places. They work well if you’ve got a smaller space right now, round typically works well in there.

Speaker 2: 04:23 That’s the upside of those. The upside of rectangular tables are with leaves, they can grow, they can accommodate the larger family gatherings, but take a look and kind of figure out what works for your lifestyle there. Right? So let’s move on to the next essential piece. And that is a compact Leather Sofa. So tell us more about why that’s a good, a good choice. Yeah. So you may think that, you know, in your first house you don’t really need a large Sofa, but you sofa is really a solid piece of furniture that you need, um, that you would be down and moving forward. So, um, you know, a sofa as a good piece to invest in, um, they tend to, um, were better and longer. So you want to think about that. You want to think about buying a sofa that’s gonna last you five years, 10 years, 15 years down the road, possible with leather, and that’s possible with leather.

Speaker 2: 05:07 And then the other thing, it’s easy to clean. So you know, we’ve got a growing family that’s awesome, you know, we can always just wipe it down and you still have a great piece yet they have and if it lasts the 10, 15, 20 years and you’re now grandparents with little kids, again, it’s easy to clean and it works. That works on that side. The other thing is when you’re thinking either, I guess the color that at least comes to my mind is going to be brought. It may not be what everybody chooses, but Brown, it’s classic as it as it ages. It kind of gets that Nice Patina to it. It makes it easy to kind of coordinate with other color schemes if it, it may change and go from room to room, depending on what home home he read, but it can usually adapt pretty easily.

Speaker 2: 05:44 Absolutely. Absolutely. Alrighty. So the third piece that we’re recommending, and it might be a companion piece to the sofa, we were just talking about, what’s the third thing? Yeah, so the third one is a flexible sectional in sectionals are good choice for many rooms and if you plan ahead, you know, think about buying a reversible one or reconfigurable one because then if you do move into another home, you should still be able to use it if you have those, those options. Yeah, absolutely. Now when you bring up the concept of, of sectional, the other, there could be a crowd in the audience has gone, you know, oh my goodness, that’s so great. It gives me so many options. So they’re going to the other group on, oh my goodness, there’s too many options. I mean it’s kind of the flip of the, of the coin here.

Speaker 2: 06:25 One of the things that I think is popular with this option for families is where you kind of have the middle section, doesn’t have an army, then you’ve got the chaise lounges on the hand, you know, this, we’re two different people can have feet up watching tv, reading, you know, whatever. You’ve got a little bit of a, of a middle section. The advice here is to put at least two or three or four seats in between. So you don’t. If your space allows it, deal to do that. Any other advice that you have for that? Yeah. So, um, you know, be aware of that l shaped sectional, um, because there are some limitations with that, with that one cushion that’s in the corner. So, you know, unless you’re a person that likes to sit on your, on your feet or you crammed up next to someone.

Speaker 2: 07:04 So, um, so think about getting a large wedge corner. Um, you know, for your, in between. Yeah, as it usually the shortest person in the family. Any family gathering. That’s where I find the seat that’s usually left for the data for me there. If you’re a TV sits in the corner of a room and I know nowadays as maybe not as common as it once was, but there are still homes would. That is the setup. That’s just kinda the way the room works best when you’re talking sectionals. You can use a rounded sectional, um, it can be, you know, a perfect option because it provides lots of seating. Everybody can view the screen, which is nice. The downside or the side to be aware of if you’re looking at this when you’re purchasing a sectional is they take up space. So you really need to be clear on how much space that they will take up as a piece of furniture and what the size of your actual room is.

Speaker 2: 07:51 I mean, you need to go in with the dimensions, you know, in your head or on paper and make sure you’re talking to the rep so that you don’t buy something that you’re going to regret. Right? Yeah, absolutely. There are a little bit more trickier than just a so far, but that’s what we talked about, the brown leather because that works. The next item are kind of multiuse stools and occasional tables, you know, they may not jump to mind is kind of essential furniture pieces, but they really can be very functional. Yeah, they can be very functional. Um, you know, you can think about using these to replace their coffee table and especially maybe in a starter home which might be a smaller home, you know, taking that coffee table out and replacing it maybe with an Ottoman, you know, that’s going to open up that space.

Speaker 2: 08:30 So, you know, you have that there. Um, and even, um, you know, using a different stools as end tables, they can also double as extra seating and you know, same thing with some of those, uh, those smaller occasional tables. You know, when you move into your next home, there’s always going to be a spot, whether it’s going to be in your living room or maybe in a bedroom or something. You can always use those tables in different rooms. Once you, you know, upgrade or move and reaper and repurpose things. I know you are, you really can’t go wrong with vitamins. We have a couple of, um, you know, that, that get pulled out your typically around holiday or big family gatherings because they’re easy to kind of pull out, put in a corner where a bigger piece of furniture doesn’t typically go or fit, but now it can accommodate and they’re not sitting on.

Speaker 2: 09:12 People aren’t always having to sit on the floor. I know that we definitely get, get use out of ours. This brings us to a, kind of the, the fifth piece, if you will, and I think this is one that not a lot of people are going to necessarily think about. And that’s an extended headboard. So talk to us a little bit about that, right. So, um, it headboard is often overlooked in a first home, but you know, it’s really a great way to dress up a room, um, and without taking up too much space and to make sure that your headboard is going to outlast your future moves. Just make sure you buy a size bigger so than, um, than the bed that you have. For example, if you’ve got a double bed now moving, you know, moving into a home or something that you don’t get the queen size for right now, it can be a nice backdrop to the, to the nightstands and Kinda really finish off the look, make the room look very complete effort down the road.

Speaker 2: 09:58 If I upgrade to the queen bed or vice versa, queen decaying, you know, all of that. I’ve got myself covered. I’m not having to buy a whole new headboard and it really does make the room I think look, look, Nice. Nice. Well thanks to Pam. Thanks for stopping in and sharing these essential pieces of furniture. Information is, it’s always an investment when we’re buying furniture and we when we certainly want people to make good decisions and there are pieces that stand the test of time and I think the ones that we’ve covered, they’re good investments. You buy quality upfront, it will last you for the life of an more absolutely already coming up. Next we will identify the five essential pieces of furniture that it makes sense to invest in before you choose an economical choice. For the short term, we cover pieces that can serve you well through multiple homes.

Speaker 2: 10:54 Welcome back to RE/MAX real estate insights. Have you recently bought a home and you find that you need, or let’s face it, maybe you just want a few new items to go in your new home, or perhaps it’s time to just do some updating of your home decor in the basics that you have. Well, we’ve compiled a list of some key essential as well as some things not to waste your money on for all the major rooms in your home. I’m your host, Jeanette Schneider, and joining me as pm Volante marketing director for RE/MAX of southeastern Michigan. So PM. We’re. When you’re a new homeowner, entertaining is something that normally comes with it, right? I mean, you buy the new home, you invite friends, you invite family over in, whether it’s an official house warming or something a little more casual. Your mind starts to go to, I’m going to put food on.

Speaker 2: 11:37 I need some. I kind of those pieces to entertain wet, so why should folks spend their money on? Okay, so you want to think would and white. Okay. Okay. And so, you know, when we’re talking, we’ll add, we’re talking about those would serving boards, um, that you can use to out cheese, you can put out desserts, um, you know, Brad crackers, whatever, they, they’re very versatile and you can use them for all different types of things. I think about those woods serving boards. Um, and then also would salad bowls because the wooden bowls are just going to kind of stand the test of time. Right? And I’m also wire baskets. So while your baskets are a great choice for storage, right, you can always use them for storage, but you know, you’re having guests over, put a tea towel on your basket, great for your, again, for your roles, your brand, you crackers, that type of thing.

Speaker 2: 12:23 So, um, you’ve got that. And then also your white platters and bowls. I’m white is kind of a nice, neutral color. Goes with anything and you can use it for any occasion. He can’t really go wrong is. So what, what your white is what you’re saying. I know I have a couple of square plates that are that are white and I do use those for a lot of different things and they work perfectly. They kind of matched with any decor or any holiday season I can make it work and the one thing that we’re going to kind of tell you in this category is what not to spend money on your new maybe new homeowner or you’ve got a new home and you’re just upgrading some things. Is it kind of ignored the tendency to buy holiday specific items? It’s. It’s easy to do. They often look very nice.

Speaker 2: 13:00 They can set the holiday mood and I’ll admit I have some in my in my kitchen, but overtime you’re going to find they really don’t get used much and you’ve spent usually good money to buy these products and they take up space and they might get used a couple times a year at most, so it’s better to use napkins or centerpieces or other things to kind of set whatever mood you’re looking for, whether it’s July, fourth or Christmas, whatever the holiday is. Use other things and keep your. Your dishware kind of neutral, right? Yeah. There’s also a great gift ideas if you’ve got anybody getting married this year, house looking for, you know, for some gift ideas. Next up is what to buy when it comes to organizing your home. If you’re moving into a new home, you’ve got a brand new canvas to work with.

Speaker 2: 13:40 So what are some tips for this? Yeah, so you could start with baskets and hooks, you know, good sturdy hooks by your back door, um, you know, in your mud room, laundry room, that type of thing, or a great thing to have that way you’re making sure that the coats are getting hung up, right. Rather than no place that I’ve lived with it. But if you have teenage boys, I’m not sure that’s going to happen anyway. So I’m speaking from a generic, they’re a little experience there. But yeah, you want to think about, you know, um, you know, placing those folks in the right locations. Um, and think about those baskets to um, you know, baskets are very multipurpose. Um, you can have them, you know, to, to a place to put your mail in, extra hats, gloves, scarves, mitten, that type of thing. So, um, they worked very well for that.

Speaker 2: 14:20 And then in other rooms where you might want some organizing containers, um, whether it be some type of canisters or photo boxes, that type of thing. I’m trying to get ones that match, um, for several reasons. One is they’re going to look nicer. And then also if you need like boxes that stack, if they were the same type of box, are going to stack better. They’re usually met for that matter and the thing not to do here and you know, and again, a tip for you, what not to do is, especially when you move into a new home, you’re a tendency is going to be to run out and buy things to help you get organized. Tip is to maybe live in the house for a week or two. If you can get to understand what your routine is in this house. I mean, when you walk in the door, you know, where are you looking to put the keys?

Speaker 2: 15:01 Because we’re did in the old house may not be laid out the same, you know, I mean so true, you know, different things like that. Just kind of live in the house a little bit, get to understand where your needs are, then make a list and go get only what you need the tenancy, otherwise you’re going to buy more than what you needed. And then you rarely take anything back. Right. You know, then that’ll just kind of get piled up somewhere somewhere. Yeah. But it was a waste of money and it clogs. So when, again, you move into a new home or you’re updating your current home, uh, you may find the desire to just purchase some new decor items as a new canvas. It’s a new house. He wanted to get kind of a new look to it. What are some things that are smart spends when it comes to this area?

Speaker 2: 15:37 So some smart spends would be art and plants. Um, so they’re both can be very affordable and you know, they work well together and you know, when you’re talking about art, you know, it’s very affordable. Um, you can, you know, go online, find all different types of uh, framed prints, canvas prints, that type of thing. Um, sometimes local galleries will be featuring a new artist, so they’ll be promoting that artist. You can find their work, you know, relatively inexpensive. So, um, you know, definitely art is a way to go and nowadays you can even like take photos off of your phone. It’s very easy to upload those to different sites online and they’ll create the canvas prints or tile prints and mix and match. I mean, it’s so easy to do easy and so many options. Absolutely. Um, and then the other thing as I mentioned, is plants.

Speaker 2: 16:24 Um, you know, healthy household plants make the room feel fresher. They look really nice, they fill up corners very well. You might be thinking, you know, you don’t have a green thumb, you know, what am I going to do with plants? But you can always go to your local nursery and talk to them. They’ll recommend the best plants for you and for your home. Was I recently just bought what their, kind of their nickname. They have a more, a Latin real name, but their nickname is air plants and they needed very little water. You Soak them for 10 to 15 minutes once a week and that’s it. Perfect. And I’ll be the first to admit I’ve already forgotten that and they’ve gone two weeks and they’re doing just fine. So again, there are options you know, out there. So art in plants are, are, are good decor items, our tip or what not to spend money on.

Speaker 2: 17:06 And this is, this is a trap and I’m going to be as guilty as the next person is yo. Purely decorative items until you have the basics down. You want to get the basics down first before you kind of spend that splurge money if you will. I just truly decorative things and when you do start to on the decor, maybe try to find things that are multipurpose. You know, a large candle arrangement, you can be decorative but it can also be functional. Yeah. And so you want to, you want to kind of look with an eye towards that, but really get your basics down. Get a good sofa, you know, get the good lighting. Maybe get some artwork in before you start on of the extras. Yeah, absolutely. Already. So let’s not go to some specific rooms in the house. And let’s start in the kitchen.

Speaker 2: 17:44 What are some good buys for this room? Okay, so you can never go wrong with those stainless pans. Cast iron skillets. I’m a good knife set. I’m in a good cutting board. You know, these are things that you’re gonna use almost daily. So you know, purchasing some, you know, quality items in this area, you’re not going to go wrong. No, I mean in the, in the reality is the same can be true of some of the common utensils. You’ll spatula a pair of tongs, you know, wooden spoons, you use those frequently, high quality items, pay you back, you know, on the is on that as well. What about the bedroom? What are some essentials there you want to purchase? Yeah. So for the battery, you want to think about neutral sheets and bedding. And again, neutral is kind of the key word here. So by a couple of sets of neutral batting, you can mix and match it.

Speaker 2: 18:25 You’ll always have a nice look, you know, that way, um, maybe think about a white throw, you know, you can use it in the bathroom, but if you need to take it to the, you know, to your living room, you’ve got a nice neutral throw that you can use, those were met and you don’t want to waste your money on a lot of throw pillows and other frivolous items in the bedroom because it, you’re going to get tired of him anyway and pay for better quality sheetz before I’d pay for other little frilly stuff. Finally, what about the bathroom? What’s a good tip for the bathroom? So for the bathroom, get two sets of tasks per person. Um, and then same thing for your gas. Two sets of towels for um, you know, if you plan on having gas, gas, gas, yes, exactly. Um, you know, extra towels, people tend to have a lot of extra towels and that just means extra laundry and you know, more items to store in your linen cloth. Yeah, absolutely. And the tip here is not necessarily go with white towels. They look great when they’re new, but no matter how diligent you are at cleaning, they start to look dingy. And again. Yeah, I don’t go with white. Other colors will serve you much better. Yeah. Well thanks to Pam for joining us. It was a pleasure having you here today talking about some fun things that you can do to get your settled in your new home. Thank you for having me. My pleasure.

Speaker 3: 19:31 No,

Speaker 2: 19:47 you are listening to RE/MAX real estate insights and we’re going to talk a little bit about buying new construction homes when you’re buying a newly built home. It provides some exciting options and something that’s brand new to you versus purchasing an existing home. But it also maybe create some additional questions if you’ve not been through the process before. So I’m your host, Jeanette Schneider. And back with me is Nathan vogey. He’s a manager at RE/MAX classics. So welcome back to the show Nathan. Well thanks. So one of the questions I guess I wanted to ask right out of the gate, when we think new construction, we think a builder, we think potentially they have a model of their home, we potentially think that they’ve got somebody sitting in that model that works for them on some level to show the home. So if I’m a buyer, should I, can I have my own agent that’s working on my behalf in that process? There’s a wonderful question and I think the way, the best way to answer this that is one of the big similarities between buying an existing home and buying new construction is that it’s always a great idea to have representation. Uh, your agent,

Speaker 4: 20:48 uh, your real estate agent, you know, is going to assist you in a lot of things when you’re buying an existing home. You know, you’re going to do more than just get you access to the house, give you a list of properties that are for sale, blah, blah, blah, blah. They’re going to, they’re going to walk you through the whole transaction. Safia new construction. I mean, realtors, we, we see a lot of different properties, a lot of different ways property were sold, new constructions, one of them, so we have a pretty good understanding as to how the process is gonna go thinks questions you should ask, things you should look out for, make sure that you hit those walkthroughs and deadlines and things like that that the builders to expect of you. Not to say that the builder not going to help you out with those things, but it’s nice to have another set of eyes looking at things.

Speaker 4: 21:23 So I highly recommend that you have your agent, uh, work with you when you’re buying new construction homes. There’s a particular way that you should work with your agent when it comes to new construction homes. And that is from day one. And what I mean by day one is from the second you drive by that neighborhood and decide that, hmm, I think I want to go check that out. Get a realtor a Holler if they’re not with you and see if you can set up an appointment to take them along with you to check it out. It just makes the relationship between the builder and the Realtor, you know, it solidifies that a little bit more and it gets, it gets them right in, on the, on the start, so that we, they’re familiar with what you want right from the echo, what the builder expects right from the Gecko and can help keep everything on track.

Speaker 2: 22:01 Well, like anything else, I mean, not that you can’t bring someone up to speed, but it’s better to have everybody at the table for the very first conversation.

Speaker 4: 22:09 Absolutely. Absolutely. And, and you know, in traditional real estate sales with existing homes, uh, a, your buyer’s agent is typically compensated through the sale from the listing office. Uh, and that is typically the same with new construction, is the builders compensating your agent, your buyer agents, so you’re not necessarily paying for it. However, if you walk in and it appears that they are not going to be paying an agent, they don’t get too excited about paying agent after the fact. Uh, so, so having everybody on the same page from day one is most important. I get the question a lot of times anything, if I don’t have an agent and you to give me a deal, you know, the builders are, they’re excited about building your house, they’re excited about getting you a new place and helping you out, but at the end of the day, it’s a business for them. So they, they want to keep their numbers, you know, in a position to where it allows them to keep doing these things to be profitable. So typically they’re not giving you deals, uh, you know, if you’re not bringing an agent, uh, in, in, in, and they don’t mind paying an agent because they know that they’ve got someone else to help with the heavy lifting.

Speaker 2: 23:06 Yep. Absolutely. So I guess the next question that I have is we know that there seems to be a demand for homes. We don’t have enough inventory in the market right now. That’s been a challenge. Correct. New Construction can certainly, I think, helped to fill some that we see it around town. We know building permits are, you know, are on the way up. How long is it taking to have homes built these days? We’ve heard that there’s been there, there’s some shortage of tradespeople, you know, there’s municipalities that are kind of overtaxed with going out and doing all the inspections, kind of what’s a good ballpark these days. So if

Speaker 4: 23:35 you’re doing production build homes and that’s. And that’s what most of the Seymour drive around town we see the big neighborhoods being built right though that’s production. I’m not trying to downplay that, make them sound less or anything, but that’s just terminology that we use. You know, you’re looking anywhere from six to nine months for those homes. If you’re getting into custom built homes, you, I mean, sky’s the limit. Uh, I, I just had a good friend of mine who had finished their home. It was about two and a half years it took. Now this was a custom built house. They picked out every single little square inch of this house. When you’re doing production built, the builder’s done most of the picking out the big stuff. And then he’d given you a selection of things that they’ve picked out. And then you’re just picking from those, so it goes much faster.

Speaker 4: 24:11 That’s why we can get those homes done in six to nine months starting literally from scratch on every decision that he would be in a customer. Exactly, exactly. And then you have, uh, we, you know, we, we chatted about this a little bit too, is the Spec homes where they’re pretty much 60, 70 percent finished with the house. You’re just going in, you’re putting some little final touches on it, maybe pink color carpet flooring, that kind of thing. And otherwise, you know, the House has done so that one’s gonna be fast, often advertised not as just spec but quick occupancy in new construction world. So I want to ask you a little bit about the financing side of things. Typically, you know, from what I’ve been able to gather is if I, if you’re doing new construction, the builder typically has a lender that they’ve got a relationship like that.

Speaker 4: 24:53 You. Yep. Is it something where it is in the buyer’s best interest to use the preferred lender? Or are they still free to pick whatever they want? I mean, is there a, is there a right or wrong answer for buyers? Yeah. So, um, there’s kind of two answers that question, so one, you can use whoever you want, you know, so if you’ve got the person, the place that you bank with that you hold your checking account and you want to go do a mortgage through them, great. Most people don’t care the builder as a preferred lender that they work with. Sometimes there might be some incentives or something like that. The biggest thing I can tell you from the preferred lender standpoint through the builder is likely they have closed a new construction loan at some point. I don’t specifically mean a construction loan, but I mean a loan, a mortgage involved involved in a new construction home.

Speaker 4: 25:37 Uh, so they know how to work through the differences in the time, you know, we talked about takes a lot longer to uh, you have some differences with appraisals. Normally on an existing home. And appraisal is a one stop thing that appraiser comes in, they do their inspection, they write the report, they move on new construction, they do an initial to make sure things are actually happening, and then they do a final. So there’s two pieces to that appraisal. So that’s a big change there. So that’d be the biggest thing I would tell you is make sure whatever lender you work with, they are familiar and understand that you are buying a newly built home that you’re building a house because there’s different programs that come along with that. So you can pretty much purchase any new construction home with a traditional end loan. So traditional mortgage, that’s the one most of us are familiar with, right? You can also get a new construction loan. I like to describe it as the backwards mortgage because you’re getting the mortgage before you get the house. Right? Right. So, um, and that’s. And that’s basically what it is. What I just said is how it works. You’re, you’re going, you’re getting a mortgage that closes in about 30, 45 days and then the bank is going to start issuing draws to the builder as they complete different stages of the build. At the end of it, it converts over to a regular mortgage. The key is to

Speaker 2: 26:44 that is you are paying a mortgage payment day one when that loan closes. Now it might be not a lot of money because you haven’t borrowed a lot of money because they haven’t drawn a lot of money out of your loan, but you’re still paying for it, so that’s a big thing to remember about the new construction. The other other types of financing, obviously it’s cash. If you’re paying cash for a home, a lot of times builders will just work it out with you with installment payments, so you’ll have a payment due when you sign your purchase and billing agreement and then at different stages possibly when the home is framed, dry walled, maybe when the cabinets are delivered, things like that. And then at the close when the home is all finished and you get keys, they, you know, you make your final payment, the balance.

Speaker 2: 27:18 So there is a lot on the financing and if you’re doing new construction that. So what my take away from hearing you say all of this is you want to make sure you’re working with a lender that has experienced doing this because this is going to be a new animal if you’ve not done it before. Absolutely. And that’s really the question. You can work with any lender, but you want to, you want to tell them upfront. You want to ask them, Hey, do you, are you familiar with working with buyers that are purchasing a new construction home? And will lenders be honest? I mean, you can ask the question all day long. Are they going to try to get your business? Say, Oh yeah, yeah, we’ve done that figured out as they go. Are they going to be honest, I wish I could speak to that.

Speaker 2: 27:49 I’d probably be picking a lot of numbers if I could figure that out. But um, but um, you know, the big thing is, uh, you ask around, talk to people that have built new homes that you might know, um, and talk to a lender you trust, talk to your realtor, they’re going to be able to tell you a letter that’s gonna, be able to, you know, give you that information. And again, the builder probably has a preferred lender that should have done a few of their financing, the project project. They should, they should know that what we’re talking new construction and after a short break we’re going to have Nathan back that talked to us about some things like warranties and punch lists and other things that are part of this process that if you’ve not bought new before, you may not know for sure what’s all involved. So if you’re looking to a new construction or an existing home, well RE/MAX agents can help make that dream come true. Nobody sells more homes than RE/MAX. So if you like to start the process online, just go to RE/MAX real estate insights.com to search for properties or defined in eagent near you. Stay tuned, we’ll have more RE/MAX real estate insights coming up here on seven slash 60 WJR.

Speaker 2: 28:55 Welcome back to RE/MAX real estate insights on your host and Jeanette Schneider, and we’ve been talking about new construction homes. It can be very exciting to buy something that is brand new. You get to make some choices along the way that you don’t often have available when you’re buying an existing home, but also with it comes some different things you may not have tackled before. Before the break we were just talking about financing. It’s certainly available, but it’s a little different than what you’ve experienced before. Back with me, it’s Nathan Bogey. He’s a manager with RE/MAX classic and we’re going to pick up the conversation about some other things that you may not have dealt with when buying a house before if you’ve not gone new construction in one of those is based price. I guess when when we’re buying an existing home, they have it offered for x. let’s just say $200,000. I offer one 90. Maybe we meet in the middle.

Speaker 4: 29:41 We’ve got the price established. We all move forward. Exactly. Buying new construction’s a little different there. This thing called base price. So talk to me about that. Yeah, the base price is the price of the starting price if you will. Uh, so that is if you walked into the builder’s office and you said, I want to buy the dentin floor plan for instance. And they said, okay, the den floor plan is two bedrooms, two baths, basement ranch. You’re going to get appliances, you’re going to get granted in the kitchen and it’s $300,000, right? That’s it. That’s, that’s what you’re going to pay. But that’s all you’re going to get to know if you say, well great, I get appliances, but I want the stainless steel with the gas range and the hood vent and all that kind of fun, fun stuff. The builder’s going to come back and say, okay, that’s great.

Speaker 4: 30:27 So now we’re gonna take your $300,000 base price and we’re going to add what the cost is of those options. And now your price is now three. Oh eight. So when you start picking things out, that base price increases. So think of it as like when you go to buy a car, they have like the base car version, the starting price, the biggest race is the starting price and oftentimes that’s what’s advertised. So it’s a good question to ask when you walk into the sales model saying, Hey, what’s the base price and what’s that include so that we, you know, what you’re getting at, what you’re paying. So, and, and I guess I’m going to play devil’s advocate just a little bit on behalf of buyers, right? Say, you know, okay, based prices, is that just a fancy way of saying kind of you’re hooking me in with this price and you know, darn well I’m going to want all of these upgrades.

Speaker 4: 31:05 Uh, you know, I would say no because you could legitimately buy a car, buy a home for that price. You just, you’re gonna get you’re gonna be walled into certain things that you can choose from. Uh, you’re not going to be able to pick out the, you know, every single option that you want because that would then increase your costs and you’re no longer at that base price. So could you buy a house for that? Yes. Is it a, is it a price that they’re, that they think most people will buy a home at? No, because people are to want to customize it. They want, you know, you know, now you can go in and customize your tennis shoes and have them know if you want to print your name on the back of your tongue, you can. So on that. Does that put the sports number on the builders know that the homes too, they know that people are gonna want to make it their own.

Speaker 4: 31:47 It’s your home. You want it to feel you. It’s not just somebody else down the street that, that you’re, you know. Um, so it, it’s not really a, a fake price. It’s just a price that most people probably aren’t gonna pay because they’re gonna want to make some changes to your analogy of the car. Same thing. I can buy a car for the manufacturer price of whatever they advertise on tv, but it may not have the heated seats, heated steering wheel, and the things that I liked, God’s greatest inventions. We live in Michigan. That’s important, so we’re talking with Nathan [inaudible] from RE/MAX classic about new construction homes. Okay, so now when I’m buying an existing home from time to time doesn’t happen in every case, sellers may choose to get a warranty put on that home, a home warranty at during the listing process sometimes to protect themselves.

Speaker 4: 32:28 So if anything happens on a home that they’re not going to be in much longer. Right? You’ve got some protection. Sometimes it’s a. it’s a good selling point to buyers. Say peace of mind. You come in, something goal is you’re not on the hook for a lot of money when it comes to a new home, you’d like to think everything’s going to work perfectly because it’s brand new, but we know that’s not always the case. Is there any type of a warranty or a guarantee with workmanship on new homes? So really this is an interesting topic for the. For the fact that there’s really no law stating a builder has to give you a warranty. The warranty that builders off you and almost all builders offer you a minimum of a one year warranty. And the reason they do that is they would prefer that you call them first for any issues that you might have versus reaching out to possibly the municipality or something like that and filing complaints against them, you know, um, because that’s, that’s usually not good for them.

Speaker 4: 33:17 So they want to make sure that they’re taking care of you. I mean, they, they’ve built this wonderful house for you. They want to make sure you’re happy. So they’re, they’re providing you this warranty. The biggest thing I can tell you about a warranty is that they’re limited. So you know, it may cover a crack in the driveway, but it’s not going to cover all cracks in the driveway. Meaning there’s thresholds. So you know, if you can stick a sheet, barely stick a sheet of paper and that crack, they’re probably not going to do anything. If you could stick, you know, two, three quarters side by side into that crack that may then be passed the threshold and they’ll come out and take care of it for you. But the most important thing is understanding what the limits of that warranty are. Read the warranty booklet that they give you, ask the questions of how does this warranty applied to my house?

Speaker 4: 33:57 Most builders have an orientation meeting with you prior to closing to go through the warranty to go through the house and tell you how it applies. Um, and, and, and that’s, and that’s the biggest thing. It just makes you have a good understanding what that warranty involves. Now. Um, they vary from builder to builder. Some cover more things, some cover less, some go for a year, some go for five years. Uh, some of them have pieces, you know, you know, they might give you a standard just general over the whole house warranty for a year, but then they’ll cover the foundation for waterproofing or something like that for five years. Um, so it’s just a matter of asking questions and understanding what they’re doing, their due diligence because as a buyer, you, you are a responsible party in the Smithsonian. You can’t sit here and ask no questions and try not to get anything explained to you then then claim I don’t know anything if something goes wrong.

Speaker 4: 34:42 Yep. Yeah. You want to do your due diligence, have a solid understanding of what that warranty covers. And uh, the other thing you want to know is pollins alas for, and, and, and are there time limits as to what I can report things, you know, a lot of the very important. Yeah, a lot of the warranties, uh, you know, they have checkpoints throughout that first year, you know, they have a checkpoint of 30 days in that we want to check in with you and make sure anything that was maybe prior to closing, it’s good to go. Then, you know, they have the 11 month check in with you, right when we’re getting to the finish. That’s right down to the finish line. So at that 11 month walk through, if you have anything, I tell people to make a list, whether you report it sometime between the day you take ownership of that home and the last day of your warranty, make a list of it.

Speaker 4: 35:20 If you report it so that we on your 11 month or that final walkthrough, whatever the time is, maybe it’s 10 months, maybe it’s, you know, 11 months and 15 days, whatever it is, you have that list so that we, you know, say, Hey, can we take care of this? Can we take care of this? Can we take, you know, go through your list to make sure that all those things that you want to have taken care of at least get looked at and they can tell you, yes, we’ll take care of it or no, that’s something you have to take care of it. But like you said, because you’re never going to remember everything you think you are, but you’re not going to. I guess, which raises the question, are there things like settling in other things that can happen in new homes? Are there some things that are common that do come up after closing next shouldn’t be a cause for concern or a cost to push the panic button.

Speaker 4: 35:56 If I’m a I’m a new homeowner. Yeah. So when, when homes are being built, you know, especially here in Michigan, we have seasons, so they go through a lot of different weather changes. So the temperatures inside of the home, the humidity inside the homes, they changed throughout the build process. They’re going to change even more once you’re in it because you don’t. Maybe you’re someone that is constantly warm. So you’re going to run the air conditioning a little bit more humility in near maybe in the wintertime. You’re super cold, you’re gonna run the heat. It’s going to dry it out a little bit more. So you’re gonna get a little cracking, little this little that you’re going to get some nail pops. And um, the, the thing to understand is those types of things, the houses and falling down, uh, it’s likely to be taken care of by your builder.

Speaker 4: 36:31 Check with them, check with the warranty and in and report it so that we can come in and take care of it for you. But yeah, you are going to experience some little stuff like that. Nail pops them settling cracks, you know, maybe uh, the, the closet door that was swinging perfectly for the first, like month or two. And then you start running the heat, now it’s sticking a little bit, right? This is all normal stuff and you don’t have to honor your breath. Be Saying, oh, this builder didn’t do the job. Right. These are just some, these are things that are going to happen and acknowledged that. Awesome. Well Nathan, thank you so much for this conversation. It certainly seems a topic that you’re passionate about. Yeah, a little bit. And you construction’s kind of in my thing for the last six or seven years. And uh, you know, we have a number of projects throughout Metro Detroit and

Speaker 2: 37:13 Canton in Warren and Bellville bamboo yarn area. Soon we’ve got a new one coming up in Northville, so I’ll start is a good thing. But if you want a new house, speaking of which, if you want a new house and Nathan say to contact him, we also have about a thousand other RE/MAX agents in southeastern Michigan. Debt would be happy to make a new construction or an existing home dream come true. You can find us@RE/MAXrealestateinsights.com. You can search for properties or you can find an agent there. We thank you for joining in for RE/MAX real estate insights here on seven 60 WJR.